Miles Austin Gets Hit With the SI Jinx

DeSean Jackson might not scare the Cowboys as much as he thinks, but what about the Sports Illustrated cover jinx? Wade's band of merry men will have to deal with that added pressure Saturday night now that the braintrust at America's biggest sports magazine has seen fit to honor Miles Austin with the cover of their playoff preview edition.

Choose not to believe in such voodoo if you like, but you don't have to look too far for evidence of how the cover can bring calamity in short order. The 2009 college football preview issue was shipped with two different covers depending on where you received it. You'll notice that tomorrow night's title game features neither Oklahoma State nor Ole Miss and that neither team made it out of September without suffering a loss that ended their title dreams.

Does the same fate await the Cowboys? Worse yet, does it augur injury for Austin himself? The receiver's breakout has been one of the highlights of the Cowboys season, and it would be a shame to see it end with a turned ankle or concussion because SI chose him to represent the game-breaking receivers of the NFL instead of Larry Fitzgerald or, better yet, the fear inducer from Philadelphia himself.

At the end of the day, though, the SI jinx seems like small potatoes compared to the Switzer curse that has hung over the franchise's head since January 1997. That will be the one getting the blame if the Eagles are dancing on the star late Saturday night, while the cover with Austin will be just another momento of a year that ended much too soon.

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